London trip drawings of people

Week 3 - Pre-production: a breakdown of workflow

Live Action v’s Animation? 

Animated film spends lots of time on pre-production & planning, and many of the processes because the production phase is expensive and time consuming!

Post- production  - Editing in comparison time is often minimal although special fx might be time consuming.

  

Documentary film spends lots of time on research, setting up the interviewees. The editing process is vital at the end (post-production) which is where the shape of the film will be molded.

Concept Art- shows the Director the look and feel.

Synopsis:

•      One paragraph which describes, succinctly and efficiently, your film idea.

•     The whole story - beginning, middle and end.

Task:

In my group we came up with and idea about a cup of tea. Which we then had to write a synopsis too.

Barry an English Chemistry teacher at Charlton Academy of science attempts to prepare the perfect English cuppa for Franny , the American headteacher of the school. In order for Barry to do this he must overcome his shyness. He needs to impress her by putting on his uniform and goggles. He then uses his science equipment to prepare her tea. At one point whist he is making the tea he becomes flustered from the pressure and his goggles steam up. As a result, Barry adds the wrong ingredient and when Franny takes a sip it explodes in her face. Barry is left horrified.

Initial Thumbnail sketches – keeping it small and sketchy stops you getting precious about the look before you have had time to explore – We looked at some of Joanna Quinn sketches from her film Britannia

Storyboarding

•      Work out your ideas about what needs to be shot – understanding what is needed and how it should be framed

•      This is a good time to cut out shots which you may love but you don’t need…

•      In animation this is a kind of ‘pre-editing’, a chance not to have to do loads of extra work that you won’t end up using

Storyboarding, there should be a natural flow from shot to shot.

Shot = a single frame

Scene = a series of shots that create a scene

Sequence =  A series of scenes that tell a chunk of the story.

Animation Storyboards are often key frames, it is important to figure everything out before the expensive and time consuming production phase.

                                                                                     

 TASK:

 In our groups we had to start drawing thumbnail sketches for our film idea. For homework we had to finis these.

Ball and Balloon (squash and stretch)

https://vimeo.com/110249012

In our second week of Animation Essentials we looked at Squash and Stretch.

Cup of tea - developing it further

 Emily and I took Emily's original cup of tea idea and developed it further.

 This is the story board for the cup of tea idea.

Week 3

Best drawing of the week #2

This is my best and favourite piece from week two, Drawing Strategies. This was my first time doing life drawings.

Spacing and Timing

https://vimeo.com/110242817
In our first lesson of Animations Essential we looked at timing and spacing. Keeping the same timings on key frames but changing the spacings of the other frames. We used Maya to do this.

Best drawing of the week #1

In Drawing Strategies, we have have been told to do a drawing a day, to improve our drawing skills. This was my best and favourite piece from last week. It is a Wii guitar. I decided to draw it as i like the shape of it and our flat had been playing a lot of guitar hero that week.  

Week 2 - Understanding Plots v's Story

“Make me care”

Andrew Stanton

We watched a talk by Andrew Stanton a Filmmaker, about storytelling - starting from the end and working back to the beginning.

Plot v’s Story

E.M. Forster defines story as the chronological sequence of events and plot as the causal and logical structure which connects events,

e.g.

–      The king died and then the queen died (story).

–      The king died and then the queen died of grief (plot).

Summary: For a story to work there is typically a character who overcomes an obstacle/conflict and then tries to reach a resolution.

The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories is a 2004 book by Christopher Booker.

·         anticipation stage, in which the hero is called to the adventure to come.

·         dream stage, in which the adventure begins, the hero has some success, and has an illusion of invincibility.

·         frustration stage, in which the hero has their first confrontation with the enemy, and the illusion of invincibility is lost.

·         nightmare stage, which is the climax of the plot, where hope is apparently lost.

·         resolution, the hero overcomes their burden against the odds.

The Seven Basic Plots

Overcoming the Monster

The protagonist sets out to defeat an antagonistic force which threatens the protagonist and/or protagonist's homeland.

Rags to Riches

The poor protagonist acquires things such as power, wealth, and a mate, before losing it all and gaining it back upon growing as a person.

The Quest

The protagonist and some companions set out to acquire an important object or to get to a location, facing many obstacles and temptations along the way.

Voyage and Return

The protagonist goes to a strange land and, after overcoming the threats it poses to him/her, returns with nothing but experience.

Comedy

 

Tragedy

The protagonist is a villain who falls from grace and whose death is a happy ending.

Rebirth

The protagonist is a villain or otherwise unlikable character who redeems him/herself over the course of the story.

Task

Our task for the lesson was to play the game consequences, which would then help us to make up a random story.

Consequences

Take a strip of paper and a pencil. Number one - eleven down the side.

1. An adjective about a person
2. A man’s name
3. An adjective about a person
4. A woman’s name
5. Where they met
6. He wore …
7. She wore …
8. He said to her “…
9. She said to him “…
10. The consequence was …
11. What the world said “…

 My groups end plot was Bubbly Casey and Smelly Jasey met at a park for a blind date on Halloween night. He wore a skeleton outfit and she wore a red flowy dress, trying to look her best. He says "you've got cute chubby cheeks" as she was stuffing her face with sweets. She said "Heyyy, How are you?" generally asking him. As they talked into the park it became darker and their date ended. Casey gave Jasey a cuddle as a friendly gesture, saying goodbye. They fell in love and the world said "they lived happily ever after"

The End

Other ways to generate story & plot ideas (mix & match)

1.    Existing stories in music or literature (adaptation): Be careful of copyright issues

2.    Experience: Using your own experience (autobiography) or the experience of people you know

3.    Imagination: Coming up with stuff out of your head, from thoughts or dreams

4.    Observation: Watching and noticing other people (public transport journeys are good for this)

5.    Brain storming: Using mind mapping, random words, consequences, games etc.

6.    Creating a brief: Giving yourself restrictions or a theme is helpful and your imagination will begging to problem solve, just like in last weeks task.

7.    Collaboration: Working with others to trigger ideas and develop themes

Homework
As homework we were asked in our groups to come up with another 60-90 sec film idea

Week 2

Week 1 Ideas Generation

In our first lesson of Developing ideas and Experimentation for screen, we looked at generating ideas and where they came from and how we could help ourselves to generate ideas.

IDEAS ARE CENTRAL:

• ·         The ideas you create depend on the kind of person you are and your story.
• ·         Everyone approaches film making differently and has their own signature look, design, sound,  and feel to their work
• ·         When film makers create something uniquely special that couldn’t be made by anyone else they have created a unique film making ‘voice’

We can't create an idea by:

• Staring at a blank piece of paper
• going on google 
• or going on facebook 

 

How do you get an idea?

It helps if we create a brief for ourselves to work to. Like an object as a theme. This is called Create boundaries.

–      Give yourself a theme / a brief.  This could be a character, object, emotion

–      Go for a walk, watch people, find an inspiring song, use a memory, a poem

–      Keep a sketch book and write down your thoughts and ideas

–      Work in teams and bounce ideas off each other.

 Task

Our task for the lesson was to get into a group and come up with a film idea(60-90secs) long about a cup of tea.

My group came up with an idea about a science teacher and about him making the perfect cup of tea. He does this by using his science equipment: bunsen burner to boil the water, weights to measure out the tea, measuring cylinder for the milk. In the end he has made the perfect cup of tea and he is cleaning up before he drinks it and another teacher walks in, takes the tea and leaves with it and that is how it ends.